Praise God and stay salty

Monday, August 12, 2013 Devotions: Ps 89; Jdg 12:1-7; Acts 20:17-38; Mk 9:42-50 Ethan the Ezrahite wrote: YHWH, I will sing of Your love forever; I will proclaim Your faithfulness to all generations. Your steadfast love has been established from eternity past and forever; Your faithfulness is firm as the heavens. You made covenant with David and the people of Israel, to establish this throne forever. Let all the sentient creatures, angels and humans, praise Your wonders, YHWH Sabaoth! There is no other God; all the universe is Yours; Your rule is founded on righteousness and justice, steadfast love and faithfulness. The Messiah, God's Son, rules forever, under the Creator's covenant. If we are disobedient, God will punish; but He will not forsake His own. Blessed be YHWH, Lord forever! As Moses and then Joshua led the Israelites into the land God had promised, they displaced kings and peoples, east to west, from the Arnon valley Mount Hermon. Under Moses, they conquered Sihon and the Amorites, from the Arnon to the Jabbok, half of Gilead. They took the Arabah from the Dead Sea up to the Lake Chinneroth, from the Dead Sea south to Pisgah. They overthrew Og, king of Bashan, a giant scion of the Rephaim, whose kingdom had bounded Sihon's to the north. This territory east of Jordan, Moses gave to the tribes of Reuben, Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh. On the west side of the Jordan, under Joshua, Israel conquered and displaced the peoples from Baal-gad in the valley of Lebanon to Mt. Halak near Seir. And Joshua allotted this territory as God directed him. As Paul returned toward Jerusalem, he sent from Miletus to the Ephesian elders, and they came to meet him. Paul told them: 'You know how I conducted myself among you; I served the Lord with all humility, with tears and trials, often through the plotting of Jews opposed to Jesus and me, His messenger. Yet, I did not shrink from declaring all that was profitable; I taught you in public and from house to house, testifying to both Jews and Gentiles of repentance before God and of faith in our Lord Jesus the Messiah. Now, you see, I am going up to Jerusalem, bound in the Spirit; I know only that the Holy Spirit testifies to me in every city that imprisonment and afflictions await me. Nevertheless, I do not account my life of any value or even as precious to myself; my only goal is to finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God. Now I know that none of you will see my face again in this life. And I testify to you that I am innocent of your blood, all of you—for I did not hesitate or hold back form declaring to you the whole counsel of God. Take heed to yourselves and all the flock you oversee under the Holy Spirit's Lordship: care for the church of God which He obtained at the cost of His Own Son's blood. After I am gone, fierce wolves will come among you, not sparing the flock. From your own communities, men will arise who speak perversely, intending to draw away disciples after them. So be alert; recall that for three years I did not cease, day or night, to admonish every one with tears. Now I commend you to God and to the word of His grace; that word is able to build you up and give you the inheritance among the sanctified. I have coveted no one's silver, gold or apparel. With my own hands I earned my livelihood and took care of my own needs and those of my companions. I have given you this example, so that in all things, the able must care for the weak, remembering the words of our Lord Jesus: “It is more blessed to give than to receive.”' Then Paul knelt and prayed with the Ephesians; they all wept, embraced and kissed Paul, sorrowing that they would see him no more. And they delivered him to his ship, to continue his voyage toward Syria and his journey to Jerusalem. Jesus was teaching His disciples. He told them that a sure reward awaits anyone who gives even a cup of water to one of Jesus' disciples because they bear His name. And He said, 'Whoever causes one of these little ones who believes in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a great millstone were tied around his neck and he was cast into the sea. If your hand causes you to sin, cut it off; better to live maimed than to keep both hands and go to hell. If your foot causes you to sin, cut it off; better to live lame than be thrown into hell with two feet. And if your eye causes you to sin, gouge it out; better to enter God's kingdom with one eye than to be thrown into hell with two—where the worm never dies and the first is never quenched. Every person will be salted with fire. Now, salt is good; but if it loses its saltiness, you cannot restore it. Have salt in yourselves, and be at peace with one another.'